Are Children Left Behind?

Next Monday (July 18th), local school systems in North Carolina will release their preliminary Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) results for 2004-2005. This AYP report should not be confused with the state’s ABCs report (North Carolina’s accountability program), which will be released on August 4th. While both reports use the same data − End of Grade (EOG) tests given in 3rd-8th grade and End of Course (EOC) assessments given in high school − different criteria is used to evaluate schools. All of this information can make for a blurry and confusing snapshot of school performance. So, here’s a primer to help you decode the initial round of results.

First, a brief history of AYP is in order. AYP is the federal accountability component of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), President George W. Bush’s education reform program. NCLB is the most comprehensive, intrusive K-12 federal program ever enacted. Conservatives condemn it for overstepping states’ constitutional responsibility for K-12 education; they also abhor the tremendous increase in federal education spending that has accompanied its passage. Liberals find NCLB equally distasteful because it punishes unmet student achievement targets with stringent sanctions; they also feel the government provides insufficient money to guarantee that standards can reasonably be met. This past April, the National Education Association even filed a lawsuit to try and force the Administration to pay costs of meeting NCLB rules.

Both camps will surely render their judgments in light of next week’s results. And parents will have an opportunity to form opinions as well, as they see which schools fail to make the grade. Expect the number of schools missing AYP to be higher this year, since it marks the first year Sanctions only begin after a school fails to make AYP in the same subject for two consecutive years, and even then, these penalties apply just to supplemental educational services.

Parents whose children are in sanctioned schools should familiarize themselves with their rights under federal law and take full advantage of services offered. Where can parents go for background information? Both Title I schools not making AYP are listed on the Internet.

While AYP was clearly not designed with simplicity in mind, a number of organizations can help parents puzzle their way through the data. Both the U.S. Department of Education provide interested parents with valuable resources.

Data on K-12 education is becoming an ever more complicated and tangled web, leaving many parents unsure how to interpret feedback on school performance. Yes, accountability for schools is a laudable goal. But infusing our monopoly system of government schools with free market principles is the quickest and best way to hold schools accountable, and has the added benefit of helping all schools improve.

Lindalyn Kakadelis is the director of the North Carolina Education Alliance.